The interest in two-dimensional (2D) materials has increased dramatically in recent years due to their potential in improving performance in next generation electronic devices. For example, graphene has been the most studied 2D material to date and exhibits high mobility, transmittance, mechanical strength and flexibility. However, the lack of a band gap in pure graphene has limited its performance in semiconductor device structures, such as transistors. Such limitations in graphene have stimulated research in alternative 2D materials as analogues of graphene. Recently, transition metal chalcogenides, and particularly transition metal dichalcogenides, have attracted considerable research attention as an alternative to graphene. Transition metal dichalcogenides may have stoichiometry of MX2, which describes a transition metal sandwiched between two layers of chalcogen atoms, with strong in-plane covalent bonding between the metal-chalcogen and weak out-of-plane van der Walls bonding between the layers.
However, there are few scalable, low temperature methods to produce 2D materials. Currently, mechanical exfoliation of bulk crystals is the most commonly used method of formation, but although this method produces good quality crystals, the method is unable to produce continuous films and is very labor intensive, making such a method not viable for industrial production. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been used to deposit 2D materials, but current CVD processes for metal chalcogenides, such as, for example, tin disulfide (SnS2), operate at temperatures above 600° C. and are unable to produce continuous, large area 2D materials. Accordingly, methods are desirable that are capable of producing 2D materials with a suitable band gap, at a reduced deposition temperature and with atomic level film thickness control.